Region seeks high-speed Internet service Lincoln firm owner explains wireless possibilities to East Millinocket selectmen

EAST MILLINOCKET – The Millinocket Areas Growth and Investment Council, or MAGIC, is working with several companies to bring high-speed broadband Internet service to the Katahdin Region.

Bruce McLean, MAGIC’s director, said he is looking at different options to make sure the coverage is as widespread as possible in all three towns.

This week McLean introduced officials of OnPerfect Internet of Lincoln to East Millinocket selectmen.

David Susen, owner of the 18-month-old Internet company, said his goal is to bring high-speed, wireless broadband Internet service to the towns in northern Penobscot County. Currently, the service is available in the downtown Lincoln area at a cost of $50 a month.

Susen said he plans to invest about $250,000. He hopes to expand and make the service available by Labor Day.

Susen said wireless is the newest way to overcome the difficulty of bringing broadband service to people in rural areas. He said users do not need a telephone, only an antenna and a computer. He said the wireless service would not interfere with satellite TV, cell phones, regular TV or portable phones and rain or snow will not interfere with its performance.

“Using cutting edge radio technology broadband wireless can transfer at rates up to 2 megabits per second,” he said. In comparing the speed of wireless broadband to a dial-up computer modem, Susen said it is about 30 times faster. The company is working to bring a digital line into Howland where it will use radio transmitting equipment to broadcast signals to a series of antennas up through to Millinocket.

OnPerfect officials are looking to place towers and a series of antennas in strategic high locations throughout northern Penobscot County.

McLean is working with Susen to help find locations in the Katahdin Region such as East Millinocket’s 85-foot water tank and the smokestacks at Great Northern Paper Inc. “We are still looking for locations in Millinocket and Medway,” said McLean.

McLean is asking residents of the Katahdin Region to participate in an online poll at www.magicatwork.org about the high speed service.

Susen said people interested in the service should add their name to an online list at www.onperfect.com.

Clint Linscott, chairman of the board, said he would like to see the new service come to the area as quickly as possible. He said the new service would be another tool the area could use in its efforts to attract new businesses.

East Millinocket selectmen told Susen they were ready for a written proposal from the company for rental use of its water tank. “I know that people want it,” said Mary Morris, the town’s administrator.

In other business, selectmen signed two three-year contracts with local police and firefighters.

Morris said the contracts, which run from July 1 through June 30, 2005, provide 3 percent pay increases for each year.

She said beginning July 1, employees will pay 25 percent of their health insurance premiums up to a weekly cap. Caps are: $25 a week for a single plan; $40 a week for adult with child; and $50 a week for the family plan. Currently, employees pay $40 a week for family; $32 a week for adult with child and $20 a week for single.